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With the real threat of a strike by LCBO workers before the Victoria Day long weekend, the provincial agency is strongly suggesting drinkers stock up before next Friday’s strike or lockout deadline.

Neither side appears optimistic a deal will be reached by May 17 as Ontario residents gear up for one of the most popular holidays of the year, the Victoria Day long weekend.

“In advance of the first long weekend of the summer, customers are encouraged to shop early for the best product selections,” Bob Clevely, LCBO’s senior vice-president, retail operations, said in a statement released Friday.

“Customers entertaining this weekend can avoid any possible service disruptions by shopping our stores early and stocking up,” he said.

The LCBO says regardless of the status of labour negotiations, all LCBO stores — except for some locally-owned agency stores — will be closed on Victoria Day, which will be celebrated on May 20{+ }this year.

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Some agency stores will observe their normal business hours Victoria Day. These operators contract with LCBO to sell alcohol, along with other products, in communities that are too small to support regular LCBO stores.

Negotiations with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union are still ongoing.

“It is not going well,” OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas, told the Star.

Last month, 7,000 workers at the largest wine and spirits buyer in the world voted 95 per cent in favour of a strike. Outstanding issues include wages and benefits, job security and improvements to health and safety standards.

“They want us to take four years of zeroes,” he said of the wage offer from the LCBO.

But a senior source in the LCBO said they are being treated no differently than teachers or any other public servants, who have been asked to share the pain as the debt-ridden province attempts to rein in spending.

“For some reason they don’t think they are civil servants,” the source said, adding that’s driven by the fact the LCBO is a money-maker and they feel they should share in the wealth.

A major sticking point for the union is hours of work, with some employees called in to do a little as two-hour shifts a day, Thomas said.

Meanwhile, OPSEU filed a legal claim Friday with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal against the LCBO and the Ontario government for wage discrimination against female employees of the Crown-owned retail giant.

The union is claiming the LCBO deliberately classifies regular, year-round customer service work as “casual” so it can then pay the majority of its employees — most of whom are women — less than those classified as permanent workers.

“There is nothing casual about the LCBO’s casual employees,” Thomas said in a news release.

“This group of workers is the backbone of a corporation that hands over more than $2 billion each year to the provincial treasury. The LCBO and the Ontario government are, in our view, violating both the Ontario Human Rights Code and a moral code.”

In a statement, The LCBO said, “we can confirm there has been no discrimination as alleged.”

“It is true that the majority of the LCBO’s casual customer service representatives are female. However, the majority of our permanent full-time customer service representatives are also women. There is no differential treatment on the basis of sex. The two positions are paid differently based on the nature of the work itself, like most retailers in Ontario.”

The LCBO says casual customer service representatives are some of the highest paid part-time retail employees in the province, earning between $14.94 and $20.27 per hour while full-time customer service representatives are paid between $22.65 and $26.48 per hour.

About 60 per cent of the LCBO workers are part-time and earn an average of $26,000 a year.

The LCBO last year reported net sales of $4.71 billion, up $218 million and handed over to the Ontario treasury an all-time high of $1.63 billion, not including taxes.

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